Myriad Falls

In Myriad Falls, sensed time is disrupted via the mechanics of time-keeping, cinematic time, and natural forces.

Leber and Chesworth have uncovered a circular machine, designed to activate an array of self-winding wristwatches, that replicates the complex arm movements of watch-wearers. The spiralling action of the device appears to be tossing time into the rotating watches and the surrounding world.

Under a pressure test, we see an original scuba-diving watch, made to withstand huge underwater forces. As the pressure bubbles appear and aggregate, we register each change as a marker of time.

Similarly, from simple beginnings, a complex sonic drone slowly builds throughout the soundtrack, where each sonic element is periodically added to the accumulating of moments of time. Is time a single measurable event or is time made up of an infinite number of durations? Can time be fully sensed or can it only be lived in parts?

We encounter a floral clock. Its flowers and plants, through their seasonal growth, manifest another kind of duration. The plants and the time-telling hands move about in disarray, as strong winds present yet another invisible durational force.

Birdsong appears across a blank screen. The periodical patterns of Australian Chiming Wedgebills present a multitude of individual patterns; each producing a related call, as an individual rendition within its own timeframe.

The project has been supported by Australia Council for the Arts and Rory Macdonald, horologist.

  • Sonia Leber
    Director
  • David Chesworth
    Director
  • Sonia Leber
    Producer
  • David Chesworth
    Producer
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Completion Date:
    November 1, 2017
  • Country of Origin:
    Australia
  • Country of Filming:
    Australia
  • Shooting Format:
    HD Video
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Architecture Makes Us at Centre for Contemporary Photography
    Melbourne
    Australia
    July 28, 2018
    Australian Premiere
    Curated solo exhibitiion
  • Photofairs Shanghai
    Shanghai
    China
    September 8, 2017
    World Premiere
    Curated program
  • Architecture Makes Us at UNSW Galleries
    Sydney
    Australia
    January 5, 2020
    Curated solo exhibition Jan-Feb 2019
Distribution Information
  • contact the artists: sonia@leberandchesworth.com
    Country: Worldwide
Director Biography - Sonia Leber, David Chesworth

Sonia Leber and David Chesworth

Biography – July 2021

www.leberandchesworth.com

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Sonia Leber and David Chesworth are known for their distinctive installations using video, sound, architecture and public participation. Developed through expansive research in places undergoing social change, Leber and Chesworth’s works are speculative and archaeological, responding to architectural, social and technological settings. Their highly detailed, conceptual videoworks emerge from the real but exist significantly in the realm of the imaginary.

Leber and Chesworth’s artworks have been shown in the central exhibitions of the 56th Venice Biennale: All The World’s Futures (2015), the 19th Biennale of Sydney: You Imagine What You Desire (2014) and a parallel exhibition of the 5th Moscow Biennale (2013).

Group exhibitions include 'Freedom of Sleep', Fondation Fiminco, Paris (2021); 'The Last Reader', annex M, Megaron, Athens (2018); 'The State We Are In: Collection of Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw', Galeria Labirynt, Lublin, Poland (2018); 'And Tomorrow And', Index–The Swedish Contemporary Art Foundation, Stockholm (2018); 'The Score', Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne (2017); 'Looking at me through you', Campbelltown Arts Centre, Sydney (2017); 'Call of the Avant-Garde: Constructivism and Australian Art', Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne (2017); 'I don't want to be there when it happens', 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney (2017) and Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (2017); 'The Real and Other Places', Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne, at Photo Shanghai (2017); 'This is a Voice', Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences, Sydney (2017); 'Borders, Barriers, Walls', Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne (2016); Substation Contemporary Art Prize, Melbourne (2016); 64th Blake Prize, Casula Powerhouse, Sydney (2016); 'The Documentary Take', Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne (2016); 'Melbourne Now', National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2013-14); Gold Coast Art Prize (2014), Screengrab6 International Media Arts Award, Townsville (2014), 'Cooperation Territory', 16thLine Art Gallery and Makaronka Art Center, Rostov-on-Don, Russia (2013); 'Spaced: Art Out of Place', Fremantle Art Centre (2012); 'Animal/Human', UQ Art Museum, Brisbane (2012); 'Stealing the Senses', Govett-Brewster Gallery, New Plymouth, New Zealand (2011); Melbourne Prize for Urban Sculpture (2011); 'In camera and in public', Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne (2011); 'Madrid Abierto' (2007); '+Plus Factors', Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne (2006); and the visual art program of Melbourne International Arts Festival (2004).

Solo exhibitions include ‘What Listening Knows’, Messums Wiltshire, UK (2021); 'Architecture Makes Us: Cinematic Visions of Sonia Leber & David Chesworth', Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne (2018), UNSW Galleries, Sydney (2019) and Griffith University Art Museum, Brisbane (2019); 'Zaum Tractor', Fehily Contemporary, Melbourne (2014); and Gridchinhall, Moscow (2013); 'The Way You Move Me', Fehily Contemporary, Melbourne (2012); 'Space-Shifter', Detached/MONA FOMA, Hobart (2012); Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (2011); and Conical, Melbourne (2009); and 'Almost Always Everywhere Apparent', Mildura Arts Centre (2008); and Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne (2007).

Leber and Chesworth were awarded the Substation Contemporary Art Prize (2016); Gold Coast Art Prize (2014); and Screengrab International Media Arts Award (2014). They were finalists in the Blake Prize (2016); Incinerator Art Award for Social Change (2016 & 2018); and the Melbourne Prize for Urban Sculpture (2011). They have been commissioned to create site-specific works for public spaces in Australia, New Zealand, Wales, and Slovenia.

Collections include Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw; National Gallery of Victoria; Art Gallery of Western Australia; RMIT Gallery, Melbourne; Gold Coast City Gallery; Mildura Arts Centre; and Australian Centre for the Moving Image.

A full project history can be found at www.leberandchesworth.com

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